Silk Way West 747 Declares Fuel Emergency Near Dallas, Insists on Houston
An Azerbaijan cargo carrier's Boeing 747 circled near the wrong Texas airport while low on fuel, with pilots initially refusing a closer diversion despite being hundreds of miles off course.
A Silk Way West Airlines Boeing 747 freighter became disoriented over Texas earlier this month, circling Dallas Fort Worth Airport while its crew declared a fuel emergency yet insisted on continuing to Houston—more than 200 miles away—according to air traffic control recordings.
The incident unfolded on August 4 when the Azerbaijani cargo operator's flight 7L5722, a 747-8 registered VQ-BVB, departed Mexico City's Felipe Angeles Airport bound for Houston Intercontinental. The scheduled 741-mile journey should have taken roughly 90 minutes, but approximately two hours after takeoff, the aircraft was instead circling near DFW at just 5,000 feet—an unusually low altitude for a plane hundreds of miles from its intended destination.
Air traffic control audio reveals pilots broadcasting "pan pan pan," the international urgency signal, while reporting they were "running out of fuel." When controllers asked whether they wished to declare an emergency and divert to the nearby Dallas airport, the crew responded that they needed to "land as soon as possible on runway 26R"—a reference to a Houston runway, not Dallas.
After controllers pointed out the aircraft's actual position, confusion deepened over the plane's remaining fuel. The pilots initially stated they had six tons aboard, then "confirmed" 6,000 pounds, though this may have reflected a conversion misunderstanding rather than an accurate figure. When informed their fuel reserves were insufficient to reach Houston and again offered the closer Dallas option, the crew replied: "Yes, we want to go to Houston, we are able to Houston now, but the shortcut, please."
Silk Way West operates a fleet of just over a dozen cargo aircraft from its Azerbaijani base. The circumstances that led the flight so far off course—Dallas lies even further from Mexico City than Houston—remain unclear, as does the crew's apparent reluctance to accept the nearest suitable airport despite their declared fuel situation. The airline has not publicly commented on the incident.